Mr. Moffett, I Thought You Said Cable Was Vibrantly Competitive?

In an interesting turn of events, industry analyst Craig Moffett takes a look at the growth of cable broadband and overall subscriber growth, as compared with that of telcos and satellites, and comes to this interesting conclusion: Cable is a natural monopoly in the making — and has been on course to do so since about 2005.

Mind you, we all make bad predictions (I still remember with considerable heartbreak my Great Google Prophecy). But Mr. Moffett has a habit of telling Wall St. what a great investment cable stocks are while telling Washington how wildly competitive the market is, how cable can’t possibly exercise market power, and how in no way shape or form should anyone even think about regulating this market.

Hey, look: right at the metro stop for the @fcc, it almost looks like @sprint claims to compete on price with @TMobile. That’s funny, I could’ve sworn the pro-merger propaganda said that Sprint wasn’t “really” a wireless competitor any more.... #StopTmobileSprint #MonsterMerger